I've gotta say, that the biggest jump anyone could make here was the jump from the NEX-7 to the a6000. Huge difference in focus system, and overall camera quality.

The jump from the a6000 to the a6300 is not anything even close to that of the jump from the NEX-7 to the a6000.

And consider that for the price of the a6000 now, it's probably the biggest bargain on the Sony market for any one of their top notch camera's. And there's a considerable price difference between the 6000 and the 6300.

Is the 6300 worth the money? YES. But for a lot less money, the a6000 is really close to the 6300.

I've been to many national parks in Utah many times, but I have yet to use a ND there. I do own a nice set and a couple strays, but I've used them for some special effects and a solar eclipse only.

You'll surely use a polarizer, so that's a stop or two already. You probably know that one stop (EV, or exposure value) is the equivalent of half (or double) ISO, or half (or double) shutter speed, or half (or double) whole aperture (if you're not familiar, look up exposure triangle and f-stop sequence - whole f-stops are not the individual clicks on your camera dial). Anyway, by just using a c-pl, you can slow your shutter by half or quarter (depending on the c-pl) without touching ISO or aperture!


What does the 6D max at, 1/8000? At that shutter, at ISO 100 and a mid-range aperture to get that lens sweet spot (perhaps f5.6 or f8), you'll see you don't need an extra piece of glass in front of your lens other than the never-shoot-landscapes-without polarizer. Stop down more to get some depth in your 'scapes and you'd be able to shoot a nuclear explosion without blowing out your highlights.

Mid-day isn't the best time to shoot landscapes anyway, so you might be better off scouting locations for golden hour shots (to be honest, with time limits I've always shot mid-day too, but those shots pale in comparison with golden hour or even blue hour shots.)

You don't need a very slow shutter to get that silky look from flowing water. Anything over about 1/8 second is acceptable, with more silkiness coming with longer exposures. It's a matter of taste, but I think 1/4 to 1/2 second is plenty. You can probably get that in early morning or late evening, stopped down (try not to max your aperture, though, because you'll lose IQ to refraction) with a polarizer, but otherwise, this is probably the only time you might benefit from a ND of a few stops. Keep in mind that most water features in Utah's national parks are in canyons where sunlight is limited to begin with.

Finally, when you say shooting into the sun I assume you mean for sunrise or sunset. You don't need an ND for that. A polarizer might help with some color, though, despite not being at the requisite 45-degree angle from the sun. You could use a graduated ND, but you can easily do that later as needed in Lightroom. Just meter properly and don't meter the sun. Try bracketing if you're unsure. I would set my camera to shoot three-shot brackets about .7EV, probably, to make sure I get one without any blown highlights where I can still pull out the shadows.

Oh, a parting shot: Next time I visit and want to take some pics of the sights without people, I might bring along my Big Stopper. With it I can shoot with a 1-minute exposure to try to remove most of the pesky tourists.

Came yesterday. Wow. Lots of bells and whistles. This is a serious game changer. Face recognition focus, eye-focus, seriously good video. They've kept the MIS, but now have the 3.5mm mic jack. Very responsive EVF. Very light weight but enough to keep it steady in shooting. ISO into the stratosphere, but the noise is very low even at 6400. So far, I'm impressed.

Of course I haven't tried out all those things, but I will this weekend. I will also use it for my model shoot on Tuesday.

The only thing missing is a second sdcard slot. But most cameras don't have that.

I prefer to use screw-on filters for regular ND filters. I use XUME magnetic adapters to quickly attach them (if I need to, otherwise just screw them on and leave them). I usually use 0.9 (3-stop) for bright scenes. Some recommend just buying 77mm and using step-up rings, but I prefer to use my lens hoods so usually I have the right size for the lens.

Most of mine are Tiffen or Hoya. But check them for color cast...I've seen some with pretty bad Magenta color cast from many makes.

For really dark ND (9 or 10 stop), I use Hoya. These things can get expensive, and you might want to do a 77mm with step-up rings for that. I have 77mm and 62mm (which fit my primary lenses). I also have IR cut filters attached to them to prevent IR interference.

Do not use Auto ISO with these filters. IR interference can cause a severe color shift, especially with Auto ISO.

For graduated ND filters, I use Tiffen 85mm rectangular filters on Cokin P holders. I have a slim 1-filter holder, and a regular 3-filter holder. Usually just use the 1-filter holder, but sometimes I combine graduated ND filters to make a strip filter when there is a gap in the clouds at the horizon.

I recommend getting some hard cases for these; they are fragile and the soft padded cases need care when transporting.

I also have some Tiffen and B+W screw in GNDs; not as flexible as the rectangular system but I always carry one or two of these just in case. The transition is in the middle of the filter; I just shoot wider and then crop later for composition.

Finally, I have just one Variable ND filter. I use it to dial in exposure when shooting fireworks. The issue with variable ND filters is non-uniformity and cross interference; these issues arise with ultra wide angle and too high intensity settings. I stay within the normal wide angle range and less than half intensity and never have a problem. It's a cheap brand; never had the urge to spend big bucks on a VND.

Don't misunderstand! I said the light does not change from shot to shot, and made no mention of moving from one end of the court to another.

The point was that if you are standing in some given location the light is not going to change. If you use any auto mode the exposure will be changed depending not on the light, but on the subject! Shooting a player that has a white jersey will get a darker image than shooting a player with a black jersey. Not what is wanted! And the answer is to use Manual Exposure mode with AutoISO off.

First, understand that Exposure Compensation (E.C.) is only applicable to the camera's auto exposure modes: Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and Program... also now Auto ISO on many cameras. There is no EC on fully Manual exposure mode (although some cameras appear to use the same display scale).

Next, you need to know how a camera's built in meter works. It's called a reflective or reflectance meter and measures the light being reflected off of whatever it's being pointed at. Those things reflecting the light vary in color and tonality... some are light toned (reflect a lot of light), others are dark (absorb more of the light and reflect less), and others are sort of neutral... somewhere in between.

The camera and it's meter have no idea what they are being pointed at or what it's tonality might be. For sake of discussion let's assume the world is colorless and everything is in black and white... and all the shades of gray in between. Camera manufacturers calibrate their meters to assume everything is "18% gray". This actually works out pretty well a lot of the time, as a reasonable average in a typical scene. However, any time the subject/scene varies from the norm, there's a problem because the meter still thinks it's 18% gray.

Since the camera has to rely on its internal meter when determining and setting auto exposure. Those settings work pretty well whenever the scene/subject is average tonality, but will if it's brighter than average will want to underexpose... or if its darker than average, will skew toward overexposure. In other words, unless you take control of the situation and override it in some way, the camera's auto exposure modes will do their very best to treat everything as if it were 18% gray tonality.... causing poor exposures any time it's not.

Changing the camera's setting(s) in the auto exposure mode actually doesn't change exposure. In Aperture Priority mode you change the aperture to the desired setting and the camera responds by adjusting the shutter speed to produce and exposure for 18% gray tonality. In Shutter Priority mode you change the shutter speed and the camera responds by adjusting the aperture size to make an 18% gray exposure. In Program mode you can't adjust either the shutter or the aperture, the camera handles both and sets a combination that will produce 18% gray.

Now found on many cameras, Auto ISO (with camera set to Manual) is actually just another form of auto exposure. Here you can select both shutter and aperture, and the camera will adjust the ISO to... you guessed it... produce an 18% gray exposure. (Presumably Auto ISO combined with any of the other auto exposure modes would, too... but I have no idea because I'd never use an auto/auto mode... serves no purpose I can think of and might give weird results.)

So you need some means of overriding the camera's requirement to render everything the same 18% gray... some way to adjust it so that brighter than average scenes or subjects are rendered correctly, or that darker ones remain dark toned. This is where EC comes into play. The photographer needs to observe the subject/scene and make some adjustments.

The alternative is to switch the camera to Manual mode (with Auto ISO turned off) and lock down all the settings. But that's not always possible. There are times you simply have to use an auto exposure mode, to "get the shot". For example, if you're shooting in situations where the light is changing rather quickly.... or the subject is moving through different lighting conditions such as in and out of shadows and full sun... or you just need to be "ready for anything".... it is sometimes necessary to use one or another of the auto exposure modes. And when that's the case, when you use any of the auto exposure modes, you'll be able to get better results if you learn to recognize when your scene/subject isn't 18% gray and to adjust Exposure Compensation appropriately to fine tune the exposure accuracy of your images.

With many modern digital cameras we have a helpful tool... a histogram that graphically displays the measured tonalities in any scene. This can help confirm your judgment of whether or not to use EC and how much to apply, giving you opportunity to make corrections and reshoot immediately. Don't trust the image playback... that's influenced they the ambient light where ever you happen to be viewing it (and the LCD screens of cameras aren't all what well calibrated either). The histogram is a better reference, though you need to learn how to read one.

Someone mentioned strongly backlit situations... such as a sunset behind someone whose portrait your taking. Also think of photographing a bride in a white gown in a snow scene... or a black bear in a coal mine. All these are examples of extreme lighting situations that will fool the camera's meter, which in turn will cause any form of auto exposure to be incorrect. The world is full of tonalities that vary from the average. So it's up to you, teh photographers, to recognize this and correct things with EC.

Highly recommended reading: "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. That might be the best photography book you'll ever read!

Note: I have no idea where "17% gray" is coming from. AFAIK the most commonly discussed standard is "18% gray", also sometimes referred to as "middle gray". I do know some cameras and meters use 15% gray instead... but this thread is one of the few times I've seen 17% gray widely referenced. So, don't be confused by that.

First, understand that Exposure Compensation (E.C.) is only applicable to the camera's auto exposure modes: Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and Program... also now Auto ISO on many cameras. There is no EC on fully Manual exposure mode (although some cameras appear to use the same display scale).

Next, you need to know how a camera's built in meter works. It's called a reflective or reflectance meter and measures the light being reflected off of whatever it's being pointed at. Those things reflecting the light vary in color and tonality... some are light toned (reflect a lot of light), others are dark (absorb more of the light and reflect less), and others are sort of neutral... somewhere in between.

The camera and it's meter have no idea what they are being pointed at or what it's tonality might be. For sake of discussion let's assume the world is colorless and everything is in black and white... and all the shades of gray in between. Camera manufacturers calibrate their meters to assume everything is "18% gray". This actually works out pretty well a lot of the time, as a reasonable average in a typical scene. However, any time the subject/scene varies from the norm, there's a problem because the meter still thinks it's 18% gray.

Since the camera has to rely on its internal meter when determining and setting auto exposure. Those settings work pretty well whenever the scene/subject is average tonality, but will if it's brighter than average will want to underexpose... or if its darker than average, will skew toward overexposure. In other words, unless you take control of the situation and override it in some way, the camera's auto exposure modes will do their very best to treat everything as if it were 18% gray tonality.... causing poor exposures any time it's not.

Changing the camera's setting(s) in the auto exposure mode actually doesn't change exposure. In Aperture Priority mode you change the aperture to the desired setting and the camera responds by adjusting the shutter speed to produce and exposure for 18% gray tonality. In Shutter Priority mode you change the shutter speed and the camera responds by adjusting the aperture size to make an 18% gray exposure. In Program mode you can't adjust either the shutter or the aperture, the camera handles both and sets a combination that will produce 18% gray.

Now found on many cameras, Auto ISO (with camera set to Manual) is actually just another form of auto exposure. Here you can select both shutter and aperture, and the camera will adjust the ISO to... you guessed it... produce an 18% gray exposure. (Presumably Auto ISO combined with any of the other auto exposure modes would, too... but I have no idea because I'd never use an auto/auto mode... serves no purpose I can think of and might give weird results.)

So you need some means of overriding the camera's requirement to render everything the same 18% gray... some way to adjust it so that brighter than average scenes or subjects are rendered correctly, or that darker ones remain dark toned. This is where EC comes into play. The photographer needs to observe the subject/scene and make some adjustments.

The alternative is to switch the camera to Manual mode (with Auto ISO turned off) and lock down all the settings. But that's not always possible. There are times you simply have to use an auto exposure mode, to "get the shot". For example, if you're shooting in situations where the light is changing rather quickly.... or the subject is moving through different lighting conditions such as in and out of shadows and full sun... or you just need to be "ready for anything".... it is sometimes necessary to use one or another of the auto exposure modes. And when that's the case, when you use any of the auto exposure modes, you'll be able to get better results if you learn to recognize when your scene/subject isn't 18% gray and to adjust Exposure Compensation appropriately to fine tune the exposure accuracy of your images.

With many modern digital cameras we have a helpful tool... a histogram that graphically displays the measured tonalities in any scene. This can help confirm your judgment of whether or not to use EC and how much to apply, giving you opportunity to make corrections and reshoot immediately. Don't trust the image playback... that's influenced they the ambient light where ever you happen to be viewing it (and the LCD screens of cameras aren't all what well calibrated either). The histogram is a better reference, though you need to learn how to read one.

Someone mentioned strongly backlit situations... such as a sunset behind someone whose portrait your taking. Also think of photographing a bride in a white gown in a snow scene... or a black bear in a coal mine. All these are examples of extreme lighting situations that will fool the camera's meter, which in turn will cause any form of auto exposure to be incorrect. The world is full of tonalities that vary from the average. So it's up to you, teh photographers, to recognize this and correct things with EC.

Highly recommended reading: "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. That might be the best photography book you'll ever read!

Note: I have no idea where "17% gray" is coming from. AFAIK the most commonly discussed standard is "18% gray", also sometimes referred to as "middle gray". I do know some cameras and meters use 15% gray instead... but this thread is one of the few times I've seen 17% gray widely referenced. So, don't be confused by that.